Someone else
by Suffering Angel
Summary: She didn't mind having it for the wrong reasons. He was willing to give it to her for all the right ones.


_**Someone else**_

It has been a while since she first met him.

They started out as enemies, even if neither had a personal vendetta against the other. That changed soon enough, at least for her, as she came to hate him. Yes, that must've been it -

The anger, the frustration, the will to make him choke on his own words, and the ease with which she blamed everything on him - that must've been '_hate'._

She was certain he hated her back. Why else did he say that, really, if not out of spite? If not out of loathing, and resentment? Why, if he didn't hate her back?

Ah, but then spite didn't make someone save you, she knew as she pushed herself back and forth on the small swing she was sitting on, relishing the sound the rusty metal chains made in the empty playground they found. Spite didn't make them stay by you and do their very best to help you when logic stated they had no reason to do so.

And of course, spite didn't make them buy you ice cream, she concluded as she looked up at the approaching black-clad figure that held two popsicles in his hand.

She smiled up at him as she accepted the offering and wondered idly what look he had in his veiled eyes. Hers must've been sparkling...

"Thanks." She offered warmly as he went to lean against the metallic beams that held the swing up.

"I still don't get how you can eat so much of that thing."

Ah; he got himself a lemon flavored one, she noted.

"Like this! Nomnomnom!" The girl exclaimed and sank her teeth into the frozen treat, only to yelp and hold the side of her head the next moment.

"...amazing, brain freeze after all the ice-cream you ate..." He sighed over-dramatically, making her grit her teeth and hiss at him.

"Oh suck on your lemon popsicle."

"Nomnomnom." He retorted, and she couldn't help but snicker.

Trully, what a peculiar relationship they had...

–

The ice cream was gone and the sun sank lower over the sky towards the horizon. The two kept to their silence, listening to the swing moan under the weight of someone physically in their teens.

There wasn't much more to say, really; all that was left to do was to reach a decision. She should be able to do so, right? After running into - or rather, away from - Axel and Roxas earlier that day, all Xion had to do was decide what she was to do next. But even after a month away, it was hardly an easy thing to do, she knew as she looked at her companion who silently stared at the sunset.

Ah... no matter what she chose, she would lose something, wouldn't she? Whichever path she took...

Her eyes set downward, she planted her feet on the ground and pushed herself back and forth again.

"Say, Riku..." she began idly, casually enough. The teen hummed softly and turned to look at her, but she knew the tilt of the head was mostly for show and was otherwise redundant; even with the blindfold on, she came to know when his eyes were on her a while ago.

"I wonder, if things were different..." She stopped in mid-swing, her feet on the ground keeping her pushed back.

"Could we have been friends?"

She turned to look at him so as to assess his response, and spied his brows going high above his blindfold.

Ah; he wasn't expecting that.

Somewhat amused, Xion giggled and resumed swinging. "I know, under different circumstances, we wouldn't even be here. We might never have met at all, but I just wonder, _if_ we'd have met, you and I, the way we are now, but with things different... well, I wonder if anything would've came out of it."

She turned to look at him and found him with a sealed expression. He turned away the next moment, thus missing the distant smile and the sad look in her eyes as she followed a beetle as it made its way between the blades of grass.

"Something would've happened, wouldn't it? I mean, with my face and my memo-"

"I have friends other than them." Riku interjected, obviously displeased by the implications of what she said.

Xion stared at him for a long moment and soon realized his eyes were closed.

Ah... she touched an exposed nerve, it seemed, even if she wasn't certain about the precise context.

Regardless of that, she found some comfort in his words as she swung on.

"So if things were different, do you think we could have had ice cream together more often?" She swung back and this time, lifted her feet from the ground.

"Or after school, go to the beach together?" She snickered softly when she felt her hood rub against the back of her neck, pulled up by the movement.

"And when we'll sit down with everyone, would we have laughed about the stupidest things ever?" She asked last, concluding the list of all the small things that to her, made up a friendship.

He remained adamant in his silence, his hands clutching onto his sleeves over his crossed arms.

She in the meanwhile swung slowly to a halt, and poked the ground with the end of her boot.

"I wonder, really, if I asked... if you'd let me into your _secret place_-"

A gasp tore itself out of the young man's lips and he finally turned to look at her enough to make him part from the swing. The question remained unanswered for a long moment in which the girl kept staring at the hole she was digging with her heel.

Riku studied her expression, trying to fathom what was going on through her mind. For her to ask about that place of all places and things, his very childhood sanctuary...

It wasn't that he was surprised she knew about it, that much was, in fact, a given; he doubted there was much about his time with Sora he could keep from her. What caught him unprepared was the depth of attachment the girl seemed to long for.

But he knew better than to think that was all that question had to it. Not in light of why she thought they could be friends to begin with.

"...I'll think about it." He finally said, leaning back against the support beam. He ignored the tiny gasp he heard, as well as the eyes he felt were staring at him.

"That place is mine and Sora's... Kairi's too, now. I can't just let anyone who isn't any of the above in."

He felt her eyes burn an even bigger hole into his back, but kept his eyes pointedly turned away.

Ah, to not be granted entrance so easily to such an important place despite it all... despite what she thought was a given...

She hated it, really, the tiny spark of hope that rejection brought with it.

"But... there's a chance, right? It's possible?" She asked in a tiny voice, but he heard her just the same.

"Of course. I told you, didn't I? I have friends other than those two. Or-"

He paused for a moment and she looked up to find him holding the ice-cream stick he didn't throw away yet.

"I guess this failed to get the point across?"

Blue eyes widened at the question, and for a long moment Xion could do little more than stare. Her fingers tightened around the rusted metal, but just as she came to try and respond, he shrugged and bit onto the end of the stick.

"Omnomnom."

At the somewhat random turn of events, Xion ended up laughing despite herself. It came out a sputter at first, then a giggle fit that escalated.

"_What_?" She managed to ask, only to be answered with a shrug, at which she ended up laughing even harder.

Shaking his head, stick between his teeth, Riku moved to stand behind the swing. He held the chains and waited for the girl to calm down so he could push her, but before that happened she leaned back against him.

He could feel her shivering against him as she settled her breathing, and before long she looked up at him, her hair a mess against his coat and her cheeks flushed.

"It's funny... I never thought I'd be so happy to be denied entry somewhere."

For a moment he was taken aback by that smile, so wide and honest that the girl seemed to be glowing. Upon recovery, Riku huffed and reached to ruffle her hair.

"I'm magical like that. Now hold on tight, because I'm not holding back."

Not even bothering with putting her hair back in place, Xion simply tightened her hold on the chains and let herself be pushed.

Ah, this was it, she realized - the reason Sora and Kairi liked Riku so much.

And now she could finally admit she did too - for her own reason, in her own way.


End file.
